Exploitation of Artisanal Gold

Basic unit of exploitation:

• 1 worker
• 4 wheel barrowers

Implements

• 1 wooden gantry and boards
• 5 spoon shovels
• 5 cutting shovels
• 5 flat wheelbarrows
• 1 floor
• 1 wooden canal sluice 0.85 x 4.50 meters
• 1 motor pump of 2 inches x 5 HP. BS.

Estimated total investment: $

• Gross income per month 135 gr. Gold 1,875 100 percent
• Gross expenses per month 1,200 64 percent
• Monthly profit 675 36 percent

Performance:

• Excavation of the earth 6.00 m3/h per day
• Washing of auriferous gravel 2.00 m3/h per day

The artisanal system of exploitation is utilized by miners due to its low investment costs and maintenance, the usage of labour for movement of the dirt with shovel and pick, manual wash by the usage of a sheet with holes that serves as a sieve and placed on top of the sluice that is put up with plastic, with jute with or without riffles. The extraction is carried out on auriferous beach deposits yearly (during rainy seasons the rivers rise and drag the sediments) its exploitation is during low water levels, at the same time the extraction labour of gold in auriferous areas of paleobasin under the ground generally of 2 to 5 meters in depth, with horizons covered by vegetation of developed woods, by which its exploitation implies cutting, burning and cleaning and excavating of overburden, etc. The concentrates obtained are panned in wooden pans, previously amalgamated with mercury, burned and smothered with coal of which mercury is lost by temperature.

Advantages

• Low Investment per work unit 
• Production and return of capital immediate
• A minimum amount of experience is required
• Possibility of moving huge masses of people through planning of depressed areas

Disadvantages

• Scarce movement of auriferous material
• Difficult and fatiguing mining activity
• Difficulty for obtaining labourers
• Its exploitation only limits up to the water bearing stratum
• Deposit is lost due to limited work
• 25 to 30 percent of gold is lost due to the sluices
• Overseeing and usage of sluice for every 30 wheelbarrows that are fed.